How much more obscure can you get? Hidden under rarely-used pen name, published in the one of the hardest to find magazines, and what's more, inside the issue not found in any index or catalog of this magazine! "Super Science Stories", Canadian edition, published some unique and original content, which was NOT duplicated south of the border. It's impossible to find even cover images for these issues, not to mention the tables of contents. So... this neat adventure from the premier sf writer of the "wonder" era got buried in obscurity - and became all the more interesting for it!

Rare early novel of the "master of miniaturization" Ray Cummings (a sizable amount of his fiction deals with adventures in a micro-, or even sub-atomic world) This time around, probably before he found his groove, he unfolds pretty dated (meaning very predictable) adventure on some exotic asteroid - but it might as well have taken place under my couch, or in Zambia. Of course, there are many underwater monsters and sensual "mermaids", and by the standards of the dawning age of wonder it was pretty packed, but alas, it does not read as "space adventure", or any kind of memorable adventure at all (probably because of the total lack of characterization). I can see how such escapist fantasy romps might have influenced Edgar Rice Burroughs (whom I could not bring myself to read, mostly because of the total 2-dimensionality of his writing). Cummings here, arguably, stretches his wings - to become a serious source for the colorful, thrilling adventures in the 30s. review: 25-Dec-07 (read in 2007)

This is not the best example of wonder-laden stories by Ray Cummings, but Forrest J. Ackerman's right when he (as a lucky collector of infinite amount of pulps) laments the absence of any short story collection of this prominent pulp writer. It could be that some small press did issue a collection recently, or even put some of his stories online; but the fairy dust of obscurity has already touched Cummings' literary output since the 50s, and once touched, it's hard to shake it off.

The Guide to Paperbacks, The host of this site, Morgan A.Wallace, complains about the juvenile art on #194 -"Brigands of the Moon", when it was reprinted in 1944. It is a repainted cover of the earlier PopularMechanics 1941-May issue, showing electricallinesmen trying to clear a short in overhead powerlines!

Librivox has an audio recording at the Internet Archive of just "Brigands. . ."and the audio transcript of the March, 1930 Astounding Stories Magazine.Text files for e-readers are at Internet Archive. I can't seem to load images or actual html addresses in this comment, but I am sure it will be edited. I am NOT a Ray Cummings fanatic, I just came across those two pictures that are amusing in comparison to each other. Internet search came up with several other book covers when story was originally published.

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